Thoughts on the Midterm Elections

I wish politics and business did not mix. They should be layered on top of one another with a very distinct stratification. But alas, we know that this is not the case, not in the real world anyway. The unfortunate part is that they go hand in hand in just about every facet of life. From the big lobbyists with millions of dollars down to the corner store’s campaign donation, politics, money and business are omnipresent.

Nowhere was this fact more prevalent than in the 2010 midterm elections. Various pundits continue to view the results through varying degrees of importance and through different prisms. Regardless of their analysis or opinions and regardless of where you personally stand on the issues or the powers that be, the elections were about simple economics more than anything else.

People need money. People need jobs. People need security. They have not found any of those over the course of the last two years. One can quickly blame the government, another can quickly blame private business. Let’s look at both sides.

Over the past two years the government has done some good things to stimulate economic growth and allow for more people to get jobs. They have pumped trillions of dollars of stimulus money into the market, lowered the discount rate, kept taxes low (for now) and made it very easy for new and existing businesses to get loans. They have also done some very foolish things like speculating on raising taxes, passing sweeping and convoluted medical insurance overhaul and obscure banking regulations.

Businesses too have made some progress in getting back on their feet. They have begun cautiously hiring workers again, marginally increasing sales and inventories and more wisely cutting costs. But these things also come at a price to the rest of the economy. Businesses are sitting on millions of reserve capital, shaken by what might happen if the economy gets worse. Cost cutting typically means payroll decreases, pay cuts for experienced workers and a general lack of hiring, production and research and development.

So the showdown between the government and businesses continues all the while asking the question- who is going to blink first? I would submit that this is no showdown at all, but rather two friends who are having one heck of a quarrel. That quarrel got so bad that the people of this country had to step in and do something to calm them down and so they did- they voted. What exactly they voted for will remain a point of debate, but inarguably they voted for government to stop the foolish things and continue the more wise and time-tested approaches to getting the economy back on its feet. Likewise they voted for businesses to stop the government cat-and-mouse game and push forward optimistically and openly without the shady back-room deals and dirty money.

If this seems like an oversimplification of the midterm elections, that because it is. I feel that for all the hype and hoopla of ideology and power-grabbing at the end of the day we all want to be successful. Many workers haven’t had much to celebrate in the way of success lately and that needs to change.